From Funnel to Feedback Loop: The New Advertising Playbook for Game Growth

By Jessica Clemens, Director of Client Partnerships, Gaming Lead at VDX.tv

In the world of video games, a lot is possible. A gamer’s avatar can jump through literal and figurative hoops, die multiple times and still come back to life, and shapeshift into new creatures. The creative opportunities are endless in the world of gaming. Similarly, the way these gamers come to learn about new games can be incredibly non-linear, so the way marketers approach these audiences also needs to be creative.

The player journey is not linear – it’s a network

Rather than the traditional funnel of awareness, consideration, and conversion, there is an entire network of entry points where gamers can jump in at any point. They can now engage with brands at the first exposure, or jump into exploration after hearing about them by word of mouth, or continue to engage in feedback even after the initial purchase. This advocacy is what turns the funnel into a full-fledged feedback loop.

The piece that creates the non-linear experience is that messy middle, where consumers are triggered to explore and evaluate again and again until they can finally make their decision. But even so, the journey doesn’t end with consideration because advocacy then takes shape.

For video game marketers, there is often a missed opportunity where they forget to leverage their most passionate fans to create more interest and more exploration. Finding a way to do this will continually feed the loop with genuine enthusiasm and advocacy, rather than just more awareness. But, once they learn how to feed the loop in this way, it will create a snowball effect because positive recommendations from peers create more exposure, more value, and, ultimately, more enjoyment for consumers.

People don’t move through campaigns, they move through life

My personal experience as a gamer and a marketer has helped shape the way I view game growth. I have been in marketing for over a decade, but really only started to consider myself a gamer in the past few years when I began playing with my husband, a long-time gamer. For me, it took that personal invite and experience to fully embrace gaming. If I had been exposed to video game marketing before living and gaming with him, it would have had little to no impact. In fact, I may have even gone so far as to question what data set I was in that made them think I was relevant. Was it because I like entertainment and spend a lot of time at home?

All this to say, I needed the personal experience to really embrace my spot as a gamer, so the way marketers approached me needed to be similar.

This is where household marketing can play an important role. Once my husband and I became part of the same household, our targeted marketing also shifted. Speaking to a household becomes incredibly important. As marketers, we need to focus not just on individuals, but on the entire household, creating chatter and conversation, and understanding shared interests and word of mouth. Understanding where someone is in their journey and speaking to their household can make a big difference. For me personally, I completely skipped over the need for exposure and went straight to exploration – looking for games my husband and I could play together.

Instead of only focusing on following a traditional journey, marketers need to start looking at different cues that tell them where people are moving. Look for signals and patterns rather than a single deterministic metric, and react quickly to them. When a household starts signaling intent, that is the moment to show up, not three weeks later in a retargeting pool.

We never know which chapter of the story someone is joining

When someone can enter the player’s journey at any stage, storytelling and awareness need to be prioritized at every stage. Now, they are just as critical for someone who enters the exploration phase as for someone who enters at the more traditional exposure phase.

This can get complex because now every single ad needs to work as a first and last page – enticing first time viewers and finally convincing someone farther in their journey to make the purchase and try out a new game.

As we continue to see an increase in screens and devices, the opportunities to reach more players at different parts of their journey are countless. But still, their focused attention is limited. Now, the most critical challenge is earning that little attention available for your brand. Capturing that attention will be beneficial because, according to McKinsey, a 10% increase in consumer focus correlates with a 17% increase in spend.

Evaluate each channel’s role

As marketers, we need to take another hard look at what role each channel is playing and ask if we are optimizing towards campaign KPIs, the result, or the journey as a whole. The average gamer uses 4-5 different channels (including social media, online review sites, advertisements, and word of mouth) before deciding what to play, leading to a very fragmented player journey. To successfully capture their attention, these channels need to complement, not compete for credit.

These gamers react to the game, not the marketing. They don’t look at the brand messaging, understand that they are now in a certain part of the funnel, and act accordingly. Instead, they may move around, may make a purchase only after hearing about it through word of mouth, or may watch gameplay out of sheer curiosity as their entry point. The difference between brand and user acquisition matters less to players than it does to marketers. They are only looking to experience a compelling game.